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Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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Latest News
Vogtle-3 shuts down for valve issue
One of the new Vogtle units in Georgia was shut down unexpectedly on Monday last week for a valve issue that has been investigated and repaired. According to multiple local news outlets, Georgia Power reported on July 17 that unit 3 was back in service.
Southern Company spokesperson Jacob Hawkins confirmed that Vogtle-3 went off line at 9:25 p.m. on July 8 “due to lowering water levels in the steam generators caused by a valve issue on one of the three main feedwater pumps.”
Masatoshi Yamasaki, Hironobu Unesaki, Akio Yamamoto, Toshikazu Takeda, Masaaki Mori
Nuclear Technology | Volume 177 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 63-72
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A13327
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Erbia-credit super high burnup (Er-SHB) fuel offers a means to introduce >5 wt% 235U enrichment fuel; small amounts of erbia added to all the high-enriched UO2 powder can reduce the initial reactivity to <5 wt% enrichment level. By using this erbia credit, the new fuel can be treated as <5 wt% enriched fuel, and most modifications to the existing facilities and equipment can be avoided. One of the key issues for developing the Er-SHB fuel is to validate the criticality safety analysis tools for this fuel based on a series of experiments using fuel with small amounts of erbia in the entire core. For that purpose, a series of critical experiments have been performed at the Kyoto University Critical Assembly (KUCA). Four critical cores were constructed utilizing two different average enrichments, three different erbia contents, and four different H/U ratios. Numerical analyses have also been performed using several different cross-section libraries, and the results were compared with the measurements from the KUCA experiments. These results confirm the validity of the calculations and the cross-section libraries for determining erbia reactivity. This paper outlines the basic concepts of the Er-SHB fuel, the erbia experiments, and the analyses results.